and Margaret (Short) Fisher, natives of Illinois. Four
children blessed this union, namely: Edward F.; John H.; George
W., deceased; Elizabeth J. Mr. Brabham was an earnest Christian
gentleman, and as a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal
church he exercised a great influence for good in his community.
His political support was always given the Republican party, but
he never cared for the honor or emoluments of public office. Mrs.
Brabham is an estimable lady, of many sterling qualities, and has
a large circle of friends in York county.

LPHA
DIVAN a prominent representative of the agricultural interests of
Seward county and also one of its honored pioneers, was born in
Green county, Wisconsin, on the 15th of December, 1854. His
father, Walter Divan, was born in Ohio, February 22, 1820, was
educated in the public schools of his native state, and learned
the carpenter's trade in connection with farming. At the age of
twenty he removed to Wisconsin with his parents and there met and
married Miss Mary Hackworth. Seven children were born of this
union, but only four are now living, two sons and two daughters,
namely: Sarah, now the wife of G. W. Donley, a jeweler, of Seward,
Nebraska; Ella, wife of Joseph Stall, of Milford, Nebraska,
Charley, a resident of Chicago, Illinois; and Alpha, our subject.
The parents are now living retired in Seward, the father at the
age of sixty-nine years, the mother at the age of seventy-one. It
was in 1874 that they emigrated from Wisconsin to Nebraska,
arriving in Seward county, July 2, and the father purchased a
tract of land from the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad,
at $8 per acres. To the cultivation and improvement of his place
he devoted his energies with marked success until 1881, when he
removed to Seward and has since rented the farm-to different
parties until six years ago, when our subject took charge of the
same. On the arrival of the family in this region the town of
Seward had been started, but the homesteaders were living in
dugouts and sod houses, while engaged in breaking their land, and
the first home of the Divans was a log house. In the quarter of a
century they have resided here, however, they have witnessed many
changes; the deer no longer roam over the prairies and the rude
homes of the pioneers have been replaced by substantial frame
residences, and the wild land has been converted into rich and
productive farms.

Alpha Divan is indebted to the
common schools of Wisconsin for his educational privileges, and
early in life he also obtained an excellent knowledge of every
department of agriculture. He was twenty years of age at the time
of the removal of the family to this state, and four years later
he purchased eighty acres of land at eight dollars per acre and
began life for himself. In 1890 he bought a forty acre-tract for
thirty dollars per acre, and is now the owner of an excellent
farm, which he has placed under a high state of cultivation and
improved with good buildings. Politically, he is now a Populist,
but cast his first vote for U. S. Grant, the Republican
presidential nominee. His father is a supporter of the Republican
party.

At the age of twenty-four years
Mr. Divan was united in marriage with Miss Mary C. Neihardt, by
whom he has six children: May, Walter, Grace, Bonnie, Fay and Roy,
who are being well educated in the schools of Seward county. Mrs.
Divan's father, Isaac Neihardt, was a native of Ohio, and in early
life married Miss Catherine Rogers, by whom he had three children,
two daughters, Emma, a resident of Seward, and Mary C., and one
son, who died at the age of three years. The par-

582

COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

ents are now conducting a hotel in Seward, and the father
is sixty-three years of age, the mother fifty-nine, and both enjoy
good health. During his early manhood he lived in Arkansas and
while there was nominated for congress and only lacked one vote of
being elected. He is an ardent Republican in politics; and since
coming to Nebraska. has served as sheriff of Seward county for two
terms with credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of his
constituents. He entered the service of his country during the
Civil war as a private soldier, and for meritorious conduct on
field of battle was promoted to the rank of captain.

DWARD
D. RUSSELL, a worthy representative of the agricultural interests
of York county, has made his home on section 2, Hays township,
since August, 1872, and is therefore numbered among its honored
pioneers as well as highly esteemed citizens. He was born in
Jefferson county, Iowa, April 3, 1850 son of Daniel and Harriet
(Eggleson) Russell, natives of Michigan, who removed to Jefferson
county, Iowa, at an early day, locating near Glasgow. There the
father followed his trade of wagon-making until coming to
Nebraska. The family took up their residence here August 20, 1872,
the father filing a homestead claim to eighty acres, on which our
subject now lives. There he died in 1875, and his wife passed away
in 1887. During the first summer here they lived in a dugout, but
the following fall a large sod house, eighteen by twenty-two feet,
was erected, in which the family lived for several years.

Reared in the country of his
nativity, Edward D. Russell had the advantages of a good
common-school education. He accompanied his parents on their
removal to this state, and still occupies the old homestead. On
their arrival there were many Indians in this region, but were not
troublesome, only by their persistent begging. While the family
endured many hardships incident to life on the frontier, they
still had many enjoyable times, as all the settlers were very
neighborly, shucking bees and dancing being quite common, though
they usually danced on dirt floors, as the majority were of that
kind. The nearest market was at Beaver Crossing, a distance of
twenty miles, and our subject has often carried a sack or two of
flour or meal from the mill at that place. In 1886 he erected a
good frame house upon the farm, and in the fall of 1897 remodeled
it, making a most comfortable and attractive home. The farm now
comprises one hundred and sixty acres of land under a high state
of cultivation.

In 1878, Mr. Russell led to the
marriage altar Miss Mary Hutchinson, a native of Iowa, and a
daughter of Jonathan and Abbie (Ableton) Hutchinson, who were also
pioneers of York county, homesteading land in Hays township in
1871. To our subject and his wife were born three children: Archie
and Frank, and one that is dead. Mr. Russell's first wife died in
1883. He was again married in 1886 to Bell Dulavy, a native of
Jefferson county, Iowa. They both belong to the M. E. church at
McCool, and Mr. Russell belongs to the Ancient Order of United
Workmen at that place.

NDREW
J. NEWMAN is the present clerk of the district court of York
county, and one of the most popular and able public officials in
that part of the state. Mr. Newman was born in Harrison county,
Indiana, January 25, 1852, and is a son of John S. and Amanda
(Wright) Newman, natives respectively of Virginia and
Pennsylvania, and of German descent. John Newman was a merchant
and later a river pilot. He died in 1868, at Mauckport, Indiana.
Amanda Newman died in Mauck-

COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

583

port five years later, leaving five children, of whom our
subject was the fourth in point of birth. The latter was educated
in his native county, and when a young man took up the insurance
business at Mauckport, Indiana, where he also became a justice of
the peace. He held this office four years, meanwhile accepting all
manner of insurance risks in Indiana and Kentucky, and in 1876
removed to southern Kansas, where he remained about a year. In the
fall of 1877 he settled in York, Nebraska, and traveled for a
mercantile house two years, and then went into the farm machinery
trade with Mr. J. H. Hamilton, the firm name being Newman &
Hamilton. This partnership continued until 1883, when Mr. Newman
was appointed clerk of the district court. The same fall he was
elected to this office, and has since been returned to the same
position no less than four times, a most gratifying testimonial to
his popularity and excellent administration of affairs. Mr. Newman
has also served as a justice of the peace and as deputy sheriff,
and is politically a Republican.

On the 6th of September, 1875,
Mr. Newman married Miss Newell Gwartney, a resident of Harrison
county, Indiana, and a daughter of Thomas and Mary Gwartney. Mr.
and Mrs. Newman are the parents of four children--Otis M., Mary
A., Anna L., and Wright, all of whom are living.

OLLY
M. MILLS, M. D., who was the first resident physician of Polk
county, is now successfully and extensively engaged in the
practice of his profession in Osceola. He has attained to
distinction in the line of his profession, is an earnest and
discriminating student thereof, and holds a position of due
relative precedence among the medical practitioners of this
section of the state. His career has been one of signal usefulness
and honor, and the success which has crowned his efforts is the
merited reward of resolute purpose, untiring energy and laudable
ambition.

Dr. Mills was born in Wayne
county, New York, November 13, 1834, a son of Dr. Caleb and Betsey
(Pearce) Mills, who were also natives of the Empire state, the
father being a well known physician of Wayne county, a
representative of the eclectic school. He served as a surgeon in
the war of 1812, and his father, Colonel Peter Mills, a native of
Scotland, who came to America in colonial days, fought for the
independence of the nation in the war of the Revolution. About
1842 Dr. Caleb Mills removed with his family to Calhoun county,
Michigan, locating ten miles south of Marshall on a farm which was
operated by the sons, while the father engaged in the practice of
his chosen profession. He died in Calhoun county, July 24, 1867,
and his wife passed away February 21, 1871. They were the parents
of eleven children, all of whom reached majority, namely: Ira,
Matilda, Riley, George, Huldah, Caleb and Wesley, all now
deceased; Holly M.; Alluron; Roland, who was killed in the battle
of the Wilderness in 1864; and Alzina, deceased. Three sons
loyally served their country in the war of the Rebellion--George,
Holly M. and Roland.

The Doctor was reared to manhood
in Michigan and became imbued with the true western spirit of
progress and enterprise. He was educated at Hillsdale College, and
started out in life for himself at the age of. fifteen years,
working as a farm hand through the summer months. In the winter
season he continued his education, and on the completion of his
literary course he prepared for the practice of medicine as a
student in the Cincinnati Eclectic College, from which institution
he was graduated with the class of 1861. In that year the country
became involved in civil war. Like his father and grandfather, Dr.
Mills, with pa-

584

COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

triotic ardor, offered his services to the government,
enlisting as a private in Company B, Eleventh Michigan Infantry.
Soon, however, he was detailed as hospital steward for the
regiment, was promoted brigadier hospital steward, and later
general field hospital steward. He served with the army of the
Cumberland, and in addition to his regular duties he often aided
at the amputating table and in care of the sick. He remained at
the front for more than three years, participated in all the
battles of his regiment, and at Stone River received a wound in
the left side from a spent musket ball, the field hospital being
then between the two lines. At that engagement he was captured by
General Lidell, of the First Arkansas brigade, but was recaptured
within an hour.

Returning to Michigan at the
close of the war, he began the practice of medicine in Branch
county, where he remained until his emigration to Nebraska, in
1870. He located and improved a homestead northeast of Osceola,
and in 1875 took up his residence in the town where he has since
made his home. He was the first resident practicing physician of
Polk county and still stands first in point of ability. He has
always been a close student of his profession and thereby keeps
abreast with the advancement made in the science. Deep
humanitarian sympathies and a sincere love of his profession
prompt him to respond to every call from the sick and suffering,
whether it comes from humble or great, rich or poor, and thus he
has won the respect and deep gratitude of many.

The Doctor was married, October
2, 1895, to Mrs. Anna L. Lathrop, née Webster, a native of
Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, born October 22, 1861, and a
daughter of Charles S. Webster, a resident of Polk county,
Nebraska. By her former marriage Mrs. Mills had a daughter, Clara
O., born July 27, 1885, and the Doctor has an adopted son, Hawley
H. Mills, who was born September 30, 1880, and is still pursuing
his education. Dr. and Mrs. Mills hold membership in the Methodist
Episcopal church, in which he is a very active worker. He is also
an exemplary representative and charter member of the Masonic
lodge, of Osceola. His life has been one of signal usefulness and
honor. Free from ostentation, he is kindly in manner, genial in
disposition and very entertaining and companionable when among his
close friends. His history is that of a man who has, step by step,
advanced to a high position among the most honored and respected
citizens of Polk county.

ILLIAM
BEATTY is one of the old settlers and representative farmers and
stock raisers of New York township, York county, and has been
quite a conspicuous figure in the development and extension of the
agricultural interests of the community in which he has made his
home for more than a quarter of a century.

Mr. Beatty was born in Fayette
county, Pennsylvania, June 6, 1826, a son of George and Mary Ann
(Mahlon) Beatty, both of whom were natives of Ireland. The parents
came to America in 1820 and settled first in Pennsylvania, but
later moved to Illinois and made their home in Marshall county.
They afterward moved to Marshall county, Iowa, where they both
died. The father was a farmer and followed that occupation all his
life. They reared a family of ten sons and one daughter, but only
three sons are now living.

William Beatty, the subject of
this sketch, was educated in Illinois, and began working on the
farm when quite young. He made his home with his parents until
twenty-five years of age, and then began life for himself. He
lived in Iowa until 1872 and then moved to York county
Nebraska,

COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

585

took a homestead in New York township and is still making
his residence on that farm. Since living here he has placed upon
it all of the improvements which now add so much to its appearance
and value. His first home, however, was a dug-out, but after a
time, in order keep abreast of the advance of civilization, he
supplanted this humble domicile with a sod house, and this
likewise finally had to give place to a frame house. Although Mr.
Beatty has claimed his residence in this township since his first
settlement here, he went to the state of Washington in 1889 and
spent three years there for the improvement of his health.

In 1852 Mr. Beatty was married in
Marshall county, Illinois, to Miss Lovina Brumsey, a native of
North Carolina and a daughter of John and Susanah Brumsey, both
natives of North Carolina. The father was a ship builder by
occupation, but after moving with his family to Illinois, in 1833,
he followed the occupation of farming. Our subject and Mrs. Beatty
are the parents of a family of seven children, five sons and two
daughters, as follows: Carnie A.; Elmira A., now Mrs. L. Allcock;
Benjamin, Mary F., Andrew J., Francis C. and Joshua. The family
are all members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. In political
views Mr. Beatty is a Republican, and under that administration
served as the second postmaster at Thayer. He is one of the
substantial representative men of New York township, having been
one of its early settlers, endured the hardships and privations of
pioneer life, the devastations of the grasshoppers, but in spite
of all he has become one of its prosperous citizens, and has done
much to aid in its growth and development.

OBERT
LOCKWOOD is one of the leading farmers of Butler county, and has a
fertile and thoroughly cultivated farm of three hundred and sixty
acres in Bone Creek township, which takes in the better part of
section 35. Like Cesar, he could tell the story of the making of
the county, and say, "all of which I saw, and part of which I
was." For more than thirty years he has found his home in this
county, and through all his experiences has never lost faith in
its future. He is prominent and influential, and his neighbors
repose much confidence in his good judgment. They elected him as a
member of the first county board, and would have used his services
for the public good had his own disposition harmonized with their
desire. Mr. Lockwood is a Democrat, and takes his part of the
common political responsibility, but he neither seeks nor desires
office. He is content to follow his own work, and devote himself
to his farm, and the honors and rewards of political life fall to
those who seek the satisfaction their acquirement brings.

Mr. Lockwood was born in Erie
county, Ohio, in 1828, where his father, Eleazer Lockwood, had
long been living. This gentleman was a native of New York, but had
accompanied his parents to Canada, when only eight years old. He
was married in Canada, and very soon after that interesting event
came back to the United States and settled in Erie county, Ohio,
where young Robert was born, and where he spent the years of his
boyhood and early manhood. There he was married in 1849 to Miss
Melinda Smith. The young couple sought a better opportunity in the
farther west, and made a brief stop in Indiana. They pushed
farther west, and when Mr. Lockwood was twenty-eight years old
they found a home in Ogle county, Illinois, near Byron. It was on
the Rock river, and was a charming and beautiful location.

Mr. Lockwood was living on his
river home when the Civil war broke out, and without hesitation
responded to the call of

586

COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

his imperilled (sic) country. He enlisted in Company B,
Ninety-second Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and gallantly served
two years with the colors. He participated in a number of the
fiercest battles of the west, and passed alive through the horrors
of Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Franklin, and Resaca, Georgia. He was
with Sherman on that glorious march through Georgia down to the
sea, and was throughout the war a valiant and daring soldier. With
the dawn of peace Mr. Lockwood came back to Ogle county, and
promptly resumed peaceful labors.

The war-worn soldier concluded
that land along the Rock river was too valuable for him to hold at
this time, and in 1866 disposed of it at a good price. He left
Illinois with a team and wagon and made the journey overland to
Butler county bringing with him three cows. It was a weary but
pleasant journey for the Lockwood family, and by the time Butler
county was entered, they were ready to settle down upon the first
inviting tract that fell under their observation. He secured
eighty acres under the homestead law, and upon it erected one of
the very first log dwellings, with a shingle roof, ever seen in
this region. He hauled lumber for it from Plattsmouth and Nebraska
City, which was unusually high in price. Cottonwood lumber cost
eighty dollars per thouand (sic) feet, and the best grades of
timber commanded almost fabulous prices. The first year he planted
sod corn and broke up much of the farm. The next year he raised
and sold six hundred and fifty-one bushels of wheat, which brought
him from one dollar to one dollar and twenty-five cents a bushel.
To sell it to dealers in Columbus he had to swim his horses across
the Platte river, the country was so lacking in roads and bridges
at that time.

Coming here in an early day, and
before the organization of Butler county, Mr. Lockwood was present
at the first beginning of the county's history. He served on the
first election board, and from the first has taken an active part
in every measure for the improvement of the county. Mrs. Lockwood
died in March, 1892. They had five children, three of whom are now
living Edwin S., Ezra B., and Frances R., now Mrs. W. J.
Evans.

OSEPH
RUNNALLS, who occupies a fine and well-improved farm on section
11, McFadden township, York county, is numbered among the
well-to-do farmers of the community, who from a small beginning
has built up one of the best homesteads in the township. He is a
self-educated as well as a self-made man, but has always made the
most of his advantages, has availed himself of the most approved
methods of carrying on agriculture and stock-raising, and due
success has not been denied him.

Mr. Runnalls was born in
Cornwall, England, in November, 1840, a son of William and Mary
(Thomas) Runnalls, also natives of England, where they lived and
died, the former being a blacksmith by trade. As his parents were
in limited circumstances, our subject was obliged to earn his own
livelihood at an early age, and was unable to read or write when
he left England at the age of eighteen years to seek his fortune
in the new world, where he believed better opportunities were
afforded ambitious and industrious young men. He first went to
Canada, locating at Brockville, near Montreal, and afterward
learned the miller's trade, which he followed in that country and
the United States for nineteen years. In June, 1873, he settled in
Seward county, Nebraska, and worked at his trade at Beaver
Crossing, one of the first mills in that section of the state.
Subsequently he worked at several other places in Nebraska and
Kansas, and in the meantime purchased one hundred and sixty acres
of land on which

COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

587

he now resides, but, not having money to improve it, he
continued to engage in milling until 1875, when he located upon
the place, to the improvement and cultivation of which he devoted
his energies during the summer months for several years, while
during the winter he continued to follow milling. He now has a
fine farm under a high state of cultivation and improved with good
buildings.

In 1866, Mr. Runnalls was married in Canada to Miss Elizabeth
Pelfrey, a native of England, whose parents died in Canada when
she was quite young. Mr. Runnalls is independent in politics,
voting for the best man at local elections, but at national
elections generally supports the Democratic ticket.

MANUEL
LINDEBLAD.--Among the influential and prominent agriculturists of
Polk county, who are indebted for their present prosperous
condition to their own industry and energy, and who have raised
themselves in the world from a state of comparative penury to that
of ease and comfort, is the gentleman whose name introduces this
article. He is engaged in farming, with the attendant stock
raising, and is meeting with a well deserved success. His farm is
on section 10, township 14, range 3.

Mr. Lindeblad was born July 16,
1840, in Guttenburg, Sweden, where he grew to manhood, acquiring
during his youth a fair education in his native tongue, and also a
knowledge of the tailor's trade, at which he worked from the age
of eleven years until coming to America in 1861. Landing in New
York, he remained in that city for six months and then went to
Buffalo, where he worked at his trade for about a year. The
following three months were spent in Quebec, Canada, and from
there he removed to Henry, Marshall county, Illinois, where he was
employed at his trade for two years.

While living there Mr. Lindeblad
was married in 1867, to Miss Hannah Jensen, a native of Stockholm,
Sweden. In 1869 he came to Nebraska, and after working at his
trade in Lincoln for two years, he took up his residence in Polk
county, upon land where he still continues to reside. His first
home here was a little frame house, the lumber of which cost forty
dollars per thousand, and had to be hauled a distance of forty
miles with a yoke of cattle. In 1871 he broke forty acres of land
and raised some sod corn; the following year raised sod corn and
some wheat; in 1873, raised a fair crop; but in 1874 the
grasshoppers took everything. During the heavy snow of April,
1873, he was in Lincoln, and his wife being alone on the farm had
to take the cattle into the bedroom and kept them there for three
days. During their early residence here she would attend to the
cattle, and haul the water in a bucket, and help her husband in
other ways upon the farm, while he would work by day in the
fields, and at night would do tailoring in order to support the
family. Prosperity at last crowned their united efforts, and today
they are the owners of an excellent farm of three hundred and
sixty acres, of which all but forty acres have been placed under
the plow. Their pleasant residence was erected in 1880.

Mr. and Mrs. Lindeblad have an
interesting family of eight children, namely: Alice Amelia, Minnie
Constantine, Hilding Junata, Ellen Hannah, Etra Edwina, Joseph
Ephraim, Arthur Oliver and Esther Oleda. They have attended both
English and Swedish schools, are good scholars in both languages,
and the family is one of social prominence. Parents and children
hold membership in the Lutheran church at Swede Home, with which
Mr. Lindeblad has been officially connected. He is a member of the
Scandinavian Mutual Insurance Company, and is an ardent Republican
in politics. He is one of the honored pioneers.

588

COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

of the county, his nearest neighbors being nine miles
away when he located upon his present farm. With four others he
made a trip in a wagon, viewing the country between Seward and
Central City, when not a house was to be seen for fifty or sixty
miles. Those early days were filled with many hardships and
privations, water had to be hauled a distance of seven miles, but,
with the aid of his estimable wife, Mr. Lindeblad overcame all
obstacles in his path to success, and is now one of the well-to-do
and highly respected citizens of his community.

ENRY
SCHMIDT--Many of the most enterprising and prosperous farmers of
York county have come from the land beyond the sea, and especially
is this true of the many who have left their homes in the German
empire and taken up their residence here, knowing that in this
country better opportunities for advancement were furnished
ambitious and industrious young men. Among these quite a prominent
figure is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch, and who
makes his home on section 22, Leroy township.

Mr. Schmidt was born in Prussia,
December 9, 1834, a son of Gotfreid and Concortia (Schmidt)
Schmidt, also natives of that country, where the mother died about
1838. The father afterward married a Mrs. Kernstein, and in June,
1857, they emigrated to America, with his family, locating on a
farm in Lewis county, New York, where both he and his wife lived
until their deaths.

Our subject was but four years
old when he lost his mother, and in his native land, at the age of
fourteen years, he was bound out as a shoemaker's apprentice,
serving four years in that capacity. At the end of that period he
came to the United States, embarking at Liverpool, England, in a
sailing vessel, and after five weeks upon the ocean, he landed in
New York, July 16, 1853. Although alone among strangers and
without money, he was not discouraged, for he possessed a great
amount of energy and a determination to succeed. He had no trouble
in securing work at his trade; in fact, he arrived in the
afternoon of one day and was working the next morning. He remained
in New York city until January, 1854, when he went to Watertown,
Jefferson county, the same state, but shortly afterward removed to
Lowville, Lewis county, New York, where he remained about four
years working at his trade. In March, 1857, he located in Chicago,
but after a short time spent in the city he took up his residence
at Blue Island, Cook county, Illinois, where he worked as a
journeyman for several years.

On the 24th of April, 1862, in
Chicago, Mr. Schmidt wedded Miss Mary Waniata, who was born in
Bohemia, Austria, June 9, 1844, Her parents, Wenzel and Fannie
(Critofield) Waniata, were also natives of Bohemia, whence they
came to America in 1853, and settled near Blue Island, Cook
county, Illinois. Both died in that county. By trade the father
was a tanner. Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt are the parents of eleven
children: Henry J., who married Ida Apply, of Kansas, and now
lives in Washington county, that state; Albert G., who married Ida
Kirkendahl and resides in Stockville, Frontier county, Nebraska;
Wenzel J., who married Ida Allen and makes his home in Curtis,
Nebraska; Tena E., wife of Frank Miller, of Valley Junction, Iowa;
Anna B., who died at the age of thirteen years; Fannie R., wife of
John Whisler, of Sydney, Nebraska; Lillie M., who lives with her
sister in Iowa; Charley, who died at the age of six years; Minnie,
wife of Thomas Hall, of Nuckolls county, Nebraska, and Carrie A.
and William F., both at home. The first six were born in Illinois,
and the others in York county, Nebaska (sic).

After his marriage Mr. Schmidt
removed

COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

589

to Reading, Livingston county, Illinois, where he
conducted a shoe shop until coming to Nebraska in the fall of
1872, and after pre-emting eighty acres of land in Leroy township,
York county, he returned to Illinois for his family, who arrived
on the 18th of February, 187 3. The land was all raw prairie, on
which he erected a board shanty 12 x20 feet and 6 feet in height,
and in this the family lived until the frost was out of the ground
and a more commodious dwelling could be constructed from sod. A
sod stable and granary were also built. Mr. Schmidt's live stock
at this time consisted of fourteen chickens, five pigs and a
faithful dog, which he brought with him from Illinois. By hard
work, economy and good management, he has accumulated a
competence, and now has a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres
under excellent cultivation and improved with a good residence and
substantial outbuildings.

Mr. Schmidt has been closely
indentified with the best interests of his township, is public
spirited and enterprising, and for many years has acceptably
served as township clerk, and also on the school board. His
political support is always given the Republican party, and in his
social relations he is a Mason, belonging to the blue lodge in
York. He and his wife are also connected with the Presbyterian
church of that city, were among its first members, and have always
taken an active and prominent part in all church work, giving
their influence to all objects for the betterment of their fellow
men.

SAIAH
W. WATT, a leading agriculturist of Baker township, has his
residence on section 8, and is surrounded with the comforts of
modern farm life. Mr. Watt was born December 18, 1846, in Perry
county, Ohio, son of Isaac and Ann (Tracy), Watt, both natives of
Maryland. Isaac Watt, our subject's father, removed to Perry
county, Ohio, with his parents, Joseph and Mary (Hitchcock) Watt,
when he was but three years of age. Joseph Watt was of Welsh
descent, and was a pioneer of Perry county, Ohio, where he was
engaged in farming and where he died. He served as captain of a
company in the war of 1812. Isaac Watt, the father of our subject
was reared in Perry county, Ohio, where he was engaged in farming
until 1856. At that time he removed to Tazewell county, Illinois,
where he died December 24, 1895. His wife survives him and still
resides in Tazewell county.

Isaiah W. Watt born (sic) ten
years of age when his parents removed to Tazewell county,
Illinois. He received his education in the public schools, and
supplemented it with a two years' course in the State Normal
School at Normal, Illinois. He then followed teaching several
years, and in the fall of 1872 removed to Nebraska. He spent the
first winter in Pawnee county, and the following summer in
Saunders county. In the fall of 1873 he went to York county and
purchased 160 acres of railroad lands in section 9, Baker
township. This land was all wild and unimproved, and he set
vigorously to work to put it in a state of cultivation. He later
homesteaded eighty acres in section 8, of the same township, and
on this tract he now resides. He has since purchased an additional
eighty-acre tract, and now owns three hundred and twenty acres of
land in value second to none in York county.

Mr. Watt was married July 4th,
1870, to Mary Boblett, who was born near Chilicothe, Ohio, in Ross
county. She is a daughter of Noah and Mary (Whipple) Boblett. To
Mr. and Mrs. Watt six children have been born, as follows: N.
Perley, Agnes A., I. Wesley, John C., Isaiah H. and Ralph M. All
the children are receiving the best educational advantages, Agnes
having34

590

COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

graduated from the State Normal School at Peru in 1896,
and the four youngest children are now attending that institution.

In political faith Mr. Watt is a
free-silver Republican. He is well-known throughout the county,
and has served on the county board of supervisors, and as township
assessor for several years.

OHN
Q. OHLWILER, a public-spirited and enterprising member of the
farming community of Seward county, has devoted the greater part
of his life to agriculture, in the pursuit of which he has been
very fortunate. He is the owner of one of the finest farms in H
precinct and enjoys the comfort of a happy household and home.

Mr. Ohlwiler was born November ,
1843, in Erie county, Pennsylvania, and was educated in the common
schools of that county. At the age of eighteen years, he entered
the United States Navy under Commodore Porter and remained therein
about one year. He then returned to his home in Pennsylvania and
enlisted in the Sixth Pennsylvania artillery and served until
July, 1865. He then went to western Pennsylvania and worked for
two years in the oil regions, and from thence migrated to Nebraska
in the fall of 1867. In the following July he filed a homestead
claim to eighty acres in section 8, H precinct, erected a small
frame shanty in which he lived the life of a bachelor during the
first few years of his stay in Nebraska, or until he got his new
farm cultivated and improved.

After attaining the age of
twenty-eight years, and developing his farm into a fine state of
cultivation, and furnishing it with a cozy and attractive home, he
invited Miss Margarette Luft to share it with him, and she became
his wife March 31, 1872. To this congenial union have been born
three children, two of whom, Edith E. and Nellie, are now
living.

Mr. Ohlwiler's farm now comprises
one hundred and sixty acres and the improvements on it are above
the average. He is a man of strong character and of good business
ability which is the secret of his success in life. Politically he
is a Republican, casting his first ballot for Abraham Lincoln, and
socially he affiliates with the Modern Woodmen of America.

Frederick and Maryanna (Kuhl)
Ohlwiler, our subject's parents, were also both natives of the
state of Pennsylvania, the former born in Lancaster and the latter
in York county. Later they moved to Erie county, of the same
state, where they spent the remaining years of their lives on a
farm. Mrs. Ohlwiler's parents were born in Germany. Her father,
John Luft, was fourteen years of age when he migrated to America
and located in Ohio. He at once began the occupation of farming,
and was thus engaged in that state for several years. While in
Ohio, he made the acquaintance of Miss Lena Rasp, who afterward
became his wife, and they subsequently moved to Seward county,
Nebraska, where the evening of their life was passed.

AVID
KUNS, one of the most prosperous, enterprising and extensive
farmers of York county, was born in Clinton county, Indiana,
November 23, 1850. He was a son of Henry and Caroline (Spidle)
Kuns, who were born near Dayton, Ohio. Henry Kuns removed to
Indiana when he was very young, locating near Delphi, on a farm.
They were among the pioneers in that region. They cleared a
woodland farm, sold it, moved to Clinton county. and still later
to Piatt county, Illinois. Henry Kuns became a prosperous farmer
in that state, and in 1890 he removed to California, in the
company of his brother David, and spent the remainder of his life
in well-merited retirement in that state,